My birthday was last month, and @generikat generously bought this Commander deck as a gift for me. It's from the relatively recent Duskmourn: House of Horror set, which (surprise, surprise!) has a horror theme. Follow along with this belated unboxing post for my opinions on this new deck!
Zimone is a relatively new character who first appeared in a previous set centered in Strixhaven. This was also a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. Here, she is a 3/3 legendary human wizard with a mana cost of four: two generic, and one each blue and green. Her text box reads as follows:
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, manifest dread if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn. Otherwise, you may turn a permanent you control face up. (To manifest dread, look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)
She exploits the newest version of morph or manifest by not only placing cards face-down as creatures and stocking the graveyard (discard pile) with cards which can benefit from all manner of graveyard shenanigans, she also flips those face-down cards face-up for free!. Since other cards in the deck let the player play extra lands each turn, her second ability is easily triggered, leading to the potential for big monsters to appear as if from nowhere.
Jump scare indeed!
I would like to note that the packaging is slightly deceptive. Previously, Commander pre-constructed (precons for short) decks typically had an oversized duplicate Commander card or a thicker card stock version of the commander as a display piece. This is just box art.
There are handy perforated punch-out disks for use with the game. The +1/+1 counters are nice, and probably adequate for this deck, but keeping some dice on hand is better for most cases. The other counters just have an emblem, which can just mark that there is a counter of any sort on a card.
On the back, there is a pocket for the actual deck with the real foil commander card for Zimone, and more cardboard tokens for locked rooms. These room cards are a new mechanic for Duskmourn, and don't play a big role in this deck, but that can always be changed if I want to. The plastic-wrapped deck includes all 100 cards and some double-sided tokens to represent creatures summoned by spell effects.
On to the other stuff in the box!
One of the positive changes in newer Commander sets is the oversized deck box. It has room for 100 sleeved cards, and some space to spare for the tokens. One of our game group regulars, R, plays with naked, unsleeved cards. It's downright uncivilized!
There was also a set of ten Scheme cards for playing Archenemy. A previous set of 60-card Magic decks were designed for this format, and I even wrote about unboxing and playing it back before Hive was Hive. There was an older set as well, albeit less of a game-in-a-box, and more of a supplement to support homebrewing the format. This is the first time they officially supported it as a rule variant for Commander. Neat!
You can read more about the history of Archenemy and this update in this Draftsim article, including all the oversized cards from each Duskmourn commander set.
Finally, there was a "Collector Booster Sample Pack" with two promotional cards and an advertising insert.
First, there was a foil room card which does not fit the color identity of this deck, but could certainly fit elsewhere; second, a colorless artifact creature, which I gave to @generikat to use in her artifact deck; and last, that promo trying to persuade me to buy more packs for customizing my deck. Silly corporation. Of course I'll buy the occasional booster pack, even though buying singles from a local game shop is far and away the best method for customizing a deck!
OK, so that's what the box had inside, but what do I think of the deck itself?
It's fun! There's a lot to track, so this is not a beginner-friendly way to play. There are many interactions and triggered effects on text-dense cards. However, this complexity also means it offers strategy and nuance not found in a more basic straightforward deck. The mystery of those face-down cards plus surprising opponents when some can flip to reveal big monsters is exciting. It's not over-powered compared to other precons, but it has some splashy plays to help it win effectively.
For more in-depth details, I recommend the EDHrec review and upgrade guide. I don't know how much I want to change it yet myself, because I want to play a few more games first to see what I like and what falls flat for me. That's how any deck is, though, whether homebrew or precon. What fails against some opponents might be the MVP against others. The point is to play the game, so shuffle up and have fun!
Once again, a big thank you to @generikat for the cards. We'll have to give the Archenemy variant a try some time. May the Birds of Paradise fly up your nose!
I had never heard the verses to that song before, only the chorus! I feel educated now. Ha ha!